EXPRESSING “LOCAL CULTURE” IN HAWAI'I*

ABSTRACT. Detached from the mainland and with a distinct historical ethnic geography, the conquered kingdom of Hawai'i, now the fiftieth state, is the only U.S. state with an Asian and Pacific Islander majority as well as the highest percentage of racial and ethnic intermarriage. Hawai'i's population reflects the tensions between the culturally pluralistic “spirit of aloha” and the ethnic‐cum‐social stratification that has evolved from its historical economic geographies. In this article I focus on one of these strata—what is referred to as “local” culture—discussing its ethnogenesis and contemporary manifestations, and I apply Jonathan Okamura's 1981 model of situational ethnicity to examine how locals and new immigrants negotiate the ethnic dynamics and social expectations of their daily lives. I also discuss various ways in which “localness” is represented on O'ahu's economic landscape, with an analysis of the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet, as a holistic expression of local culture.     

Explosive City Growth in the Modern World-System: An Initial Inventory Derived from Urban Demographic Changes

This is an empirical quantitative study that uses urban demographic data to identify economic change in cities. Unlike previous demographic studies, a strong theoretical framework is provided for the analysis. The research is designed and interpreted through Jacobs's theory of the city as economic process within the framework of Wallerstein's modern world-system. This is the first time Jacobs's theory has been subject to systematic inquiry over big time and big space. We create an inventory of 184 examples of Jacobs's "explosive growth" from 1500 to 2005 within the modern world-system. These results are interpreted in terms of systemic hegemonic cycles with first Dutch, and then British, and finally U.S. cities dominating the inventory lists. It is found that Dutch, British and U.S. city growth spurts are front-loaded in their respective hegemonic cycles: this is strong evidence of hegemony being created and initially sustained through and by these dynamic cities. This study makes a direct contribution to developing world-systems analysis, and in a short conclusion future research on ways of contributing to Jacobs's theory of the city are discussed.     

Re-Envisioning the City: Lefebvre,HOPE VI,and the Neoliberalization of Urban Space

This study draws upon the urban theory of Henri Lefebvre to examine HOPE VI, a public housing demolition and redevelopment program administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Hailed as a new approach to urban policy, the HOPE VI program embodies many of the key tenets of neoliberal urbanization, including an emphasis on entrepreneurial forms of urban regeneration and a focus on individual responsibility. To provide a lens for understanding this neoliberalization of space, we first detail Lefebvre's theorization of abstract space and transparency, highlighting in particular its nondialectical and depoliticized character. We then turn to examine the HOPE VI model and its implementation in Charlotte, North Carolina. Lefebvre's analysis, we argue, provides a useful entry point for interpreting the re-envisioning of urban space that underlies HOPE VI-style redevelopment, and therefore can potentially inform contemporary struggles against neoliberal urban policy.     

URBAN LIVEABILITY: A COMMENTARY

The paper compares density patterns of the three largest Canadian metropolitan regions with those of a sample of 12 U.S. urban areas with comparable populations. It verifies if such patterns support claims of Canadian urban distinctiveness prevalent within this country's research literature. Findings indicate that regional differences among U.S. cities are as important as cross-national distinctions. Measures of centrality and overall density place observed Canadian metropolitan areas within the same category as older U.S. East Coast metropolitan areas. Inter-city comparisons of historically and geographically defined zones suggest a period of cross-national convergence before World War II, when the inner city was developed, followed by a period of divergence from the 1940s to the 1970s, when the inner suburb was built. The development of the outer suburb, which began in the early 1970s, marks a return to cross-national convergence. These results question the continued relevance of the literature on the distinctiveness of Canadian urbanization.     

HAS URBAN LIVABILITY CHANGED DRAMATICALLY? A COMPARISON OF THE PLACES RATED ALMANACS

We examine changes in the livability rankings of U.S. metropolitan areas as measured by 1981 and 1985 editions of Places Rated Almanac. The bonus point system of the 1985 Almanac arbitrarily rewards PMSA status in four of the nine indices used to measure urban livability, thus giving 76 metropolitan area a decided advantage over 253 “stand alone”MSAs. A Student's t-test of thirteen comparably measured vaiables in both editions reveals many counterintuitive results. Metropolitan areas gaining in rank have higher rates of violent crime and housing costs and provide less public transportation and health care than their declining counterparts. The changes in rankings reflect changed measurement criteria and metropolitan delimitation rather than any substantive change in the U.S. urban system. Alternative mechanisms allocating bonus points, including a gravity model and the daily urban system, are suggested.     

Rethinking the Growth Machine: How to Erase a Chinatown from the Urban Core

Abstract

This article explores Houston's two Chinatowns within the context of the city's recent urban reinvestment and revitalization initiatives. It provides a history of the Chinatowns and examines their changing condition during the years that Houston was promoting ethnic diversity and urban revival. The analysis is framed within the growth machine perspective, as initially explored in Houston by Joe Feagin, and later by Jan Lin and Igor Vojnovic. Houston's late-20th-century urban redevelopment initiatives occurred during a period in history when Houston's Chinese entrepreneurs lost their influence over the local growth machine. The eventual outcome was the erasure of Houston's downtown Chinatown and the displacement of its residents from their lucrative urban core location. The disappearance of Old Chinatown and other urban ethnic neighborhoods—including Little Saigon and Freedmen's Town—from the urban core all took place as the Houston media and public were celebrating diversity, pluralism, and ethnicity in the city.     

Failing to Grow "Their" Own Justice? The Co-Production of Racial/Gendered Labor and Milwaukee's Urban Forest

Little attention is paid to the ways that labor market inequalities within urban institutions enforce governance regimes that (re)produce urban environmental unevenness. Milwaukee's Bureau of Forestry is one such institution that has historically been dependent on state-sanctioned labor market inequalities to perpetuate an explicitly White/male regime of environmental governance and production. Historically, the Bureau's management employed and promoted very few African Americans and women within its arboricultural workforce, based on its racist and gendered categories of laboring individuals. Furthermore, and for identical reasons, these workers—and by extension their communities—face distributional injustices as they are not allowed to channel their labors into the production of equitable and/or alternative forms of urban forests more suitable to their own social reproduction. This paper investigates the changing relations between Milwaukee's Bureau of Forestry and its African American and female employees as they attempt to legally (re)articulate their laboring identities and capabilities within a disempowering institution. We use in-depth interviews and archival materials to show that the Bureau of Forestry has consequently been forced to publicly confront its racist/patriarchal legacy in light of two recent high-profile lawsuits and an ambassadors program. We conclude by discussing how changes that allow some African Americans and women to work in Milwaukee's urban forest have affected the Bureau of Forestry and potentially the forest itself.     

Trump's America or the People's America? A View from the Periphery

My overarching argument in this article is that the United States is no different than any other country in the world in that its population has elected good leaders and bad. As in other places, global and national neoliberal economic reforms have affected the U.S. economy, hallowing out the manufacturing sector, shrinking government and social safety nets, and fostering income inequality. This has left various U.S. publics struggling to make ends meet and vulnerable to demagoguery. Although the country prides itself on the strength of its institutions, institutions are no more than social contracts that need to be assiduously maintained by civil society. Although there is a strong “ivory tower” tradition in U.S. academe, the republic needs scholars—acting as public intellectuals—to fully participate in civic debates if it is to have a sufficiently robust civil society that maintains and defends its democracy and institutions. This article is divided into three sections. First, I briefly review the Trump administration's proposals for international development and diplomacy, giving particular attention to these issues in the African context. Second, I present an argument for why the United States needs public intellectuals now more than ever. Third, I share some concrete advice on how geographers might better connect with various publics.     

Pow Choon-Piew's contributions to urban China studies

This commentary serves as a tribute to the late Pow, a remarkable scholar in urban geography and urban studies, summarizing his contributions to urban China studies. It aims to showcase the way in which Pow's work manoeuvred adroitly with an implicit comparative gesture—building a bridge between situated Chinese cases and wider theoretical debates in urban studies in order to enrich both domains. The essay then summarizes Pow's work in the field of urban China studies by focusing on two most emblematic topics that he delved into in great depth, i.e., gated communities and eco-city developments. The final section develops a brief quantitative analysis of the impact that Pow's work has generated. Using the software packages CiteSpace and HistCite, I unpack how his publications are cited and used by scholars, journals, and different areas of research.     

Will It Play in Peoria?

The election of Donald Trump as the president of the United States has provided a final chance for geographers to intellectually engage with the public. Geographers should do this through our niche—the clear understanding of the importance of location—and connect the local with the global. In doing so, it is our responsibility to make the case to the public, without diluting the academic rigor. Although there are many challenges in such a venture outside academe, especially given geography's lack of recognition among the U.S. public, it is our civic duty to engage via public intellectualism.     

城市化速度曲线及其政策启示——对诺瑟姆曲线的讨论与发展

诺瑟姆提出的城市化S形曲线是城市地理学的经典理论成果,对它在中国的应用却存在曲解。根据诺瑟姆原文,不是所有国家的城市化水平都能达到100%,城市化水平在30%到70%之间也不是一直处于加速状态;进而推导出城市化速度变化的四阶段倒"U"形曲线:孕育阶段、加速阶段、减速阶段、趋零阶段。其政策含义和启示在于:城市化速度变化有其规律,不能拔苗助长;中国已经迈过城市化速度的拐点,加速城市化不应是长期的主旋律;城市化依然是主要发展方向和趋势;中国城市化理念与重点均需转型;城市化与包容性增长、城乡统筹和农民工市民化是"十二五"时期的主要任务。     

Policy Boosterism,Policy Mobilities,and the Extrospective City

Abstract

This study develops the notion of “policy boosterism,” a subset of traditional branding and marketing activities that involves the active promotion of locally developed and/or locally successful policies, programs, or practices across wider geographical fields as well as to broader communities of interested peers. It is argued that policy boosterism is (1) an important element of how urban policy actors engage with global communities of professional peers and with local residents, and (2) a useful concept with which to interrogate and understand how policies and policy knowledge are mobilized among cities. A conceptualization of policy boosterism and its role in global-urban policymaking is developed by combining insights from the burgeoning “policy mobilities” literature with those of the longstanding literature on entrepreneurial city marketing. It is supported by illustrative examples of policy boosterism in Vancouver: the city's Greenest City and Green Capital initiatives, the use of the term “Vancouverism” among the city's urban design community, and demonstrations of new urban technologies during the 2010 Winter Olympics that were used to market a particular vision of the city's governance to people from elsewhere, but also—crucially—to local audiences. The article concludes by highlighting four foci that might frame future work at the intersections of policy boosterism and policy mobilities.     

Aquaculture and the Postproductive Transition on the Maine Coast

Aquaculture is the global food system's fastest growing sector. The postproductive transition—the shift away from commodity production toward more consumption‐oriented land uses—is common in many coastal areas as well. This paper examines the intersection of these trends in a U.S. state, Maine, with expanding aquaculture and extensive coastal, rural economic and demographic change. It examines interactions between coastal landowners and aquaculture farmers at aquaculture lease hearings in the state's three main aquaculture regions. Landowners are often uncertain about aquaculture because it is new and unfamiliar. Farmers use lease hearings to educate coastal landowners about farm operations, and farmers respond to concerns by altering their operations to fit landowners’ priorities. However, comparative analysis of the three regions reveals divergent histories and geographies leading to different levels of conflict. This study shows the value of applying rural postproductive transition theory to coastal regions and aquaculture development.     

Escapism. Yi-Fu Tuan; Transnationalism from Below. Michael Peter Smith and Luis Eduardo Guarnizo,editors; Race,Place, and the Law 1836-1948. David Delaney; Hurricane Andrew: Ethnicity,Gender, and the Sociology of Disasters. Walter Gillis Peacock,Betty Hearn Morrow,and Hugh Gladwin,editors

In the second half of the 20th century, considerable resources and efforts have been devoted to revitalizing American central cities. In these redevelopment processes, however, the common byproduct of physical upgrading is social upgrading, the displacement of many of the original residents, who are often low-income and minority, from their traditional neighborhoods. This article explores the various processes of physical and social upgrading—including locally driven urban renewal, private sector "blockbusting," and gentrification—occurring in late 20th century Houston, Texas. This research also examines the neighborhood characteristics and demographic patterns that influence the occurrence of specific upgrading processes. One location of particular interest in the study is Houston's historic African American community of Freedmen's Town, which has experienced decades of conflict over land and space. Most recently, Freedmen's Town has been at the focus of Houston's urban revival, where physical upgrading has been accompanied by the displacement of the community's traditional population and the destruction of this historic neighborhood.     

The Nearshore as Public Space: Controlling Access to the Coastal Ocean

In this paper I examine how the politics of mobility is an important factor when considering the contentious nature of urban growth debates. By a politics of mobility I mean the political struggle over what type of transportation mode—be it automobile, transit, or walking—is developed in a city, and how urban space is configured to make various modes functional. More importantly, the politics of mobility is an extension of competing and contested ideologies and normative values about how the city should be configured and for whom. I provide a case study of Atlanta, Georgia's business elites and their negotiation of the politics of mobility as they confronted a mobility crisis of congestion and air pollution. This paper provides a platform for further comparative research on urban growth debates in an era of increasing environmental and social problems stemming from transportation policy.     

Provincializing urban appropriation: Agonistic transgression as a mode of actually existing appropriation in South African cities

Urban appropriation is a key dimension of both Lefebvre's widely hailed ‘Right to the City’ and Bayat's concept of ‘quiet encroachment’. For Lefebvre, appropriation is a (generally unrealized) claim by those who do not ‘have’ the city of a right to ‘take’ it. Bayat, in contrast, characterizes actually existing appropriation as motivated by everyday needs, not aimed at wider social change. While both theorizations may be useful, we argue that a third mode of appropriation is apparent in South African urban contexts. Actors often act in ways that could be characterized as appropriative, yet do not work to consolidate an abrogated appropriative right or durable permission. Nor are they adequately explained as apolitical or individualistic; the logic used to justify them similarly is based neither on rights nor needs. We label such appropriation ‘agonistically transgressive’. We argue that agonistically transgressive appropriations are particularly evident in post‐apartheid South Africa, in part because of changing urban conditions and consequent renegotiations of spatial regulation. Using examples of urban land appropriation for housing in South Africa, we briefly illustrate how thinking pluralistically about urban appropriation might help better understand its actually existing forms in—and beyond—the global South.     

Post-Postmetropolis: Taking Stock of the Urban Condition

Sea changes generate tides of big ideas about cities. Postmodernity, like modernity before it, framed urban speculations spanning the gamut from liberation to purgatory and everything in between. And it is no accident that both focused the hopes and fears of the age on cities. For cities have long constituted the crucible of lived human experience vis-à-vis other humans, as well as the built and natural worlds. Taking stock involves a process of assessing what has come to pass, and what has not; in addition, it involves analyzing the topography of the present, always with an eye on that which is to come. This essay introduces the collection of articles published as a group in this symposium—and mark the first decade of the new millennium as well as the tenth anniversary of the publication of Edward Soja's Postmetropolis. At a decade's remove from both, how do urban geographers take stock of the urban condition?     

Digitizing the Dragon Head,Geo-Coding the Urban Landscape: GIS and the Transformation of China's Urban Governance

While local governments have been one of the major user groups of GIS, there is still little research on how GIS development in local government might be intertwined with urban governance, particularly in non-Western contexts. Drawing upon insights from GIS implementation, critical GIS, and governmentality studies, this article seeks to bridge this gap by examining the implications of Chinese urban government GIS practices amidst China's changing urban governance. Through an in-depth case study of Shenzhen, this article analyzes how urban GIS has been transformed from a practice involving internal organizational workflow automation, into a more active dimension of the governance of urban spaces—reflected in the expanding practice of “geo-coding” the urban landscape. “Geo-coding” here refers to a broadly defined spatial practice of carving and reconstructing a rational urban space. GIS practices have constituted a particular form of geographic rationality that seeks to govern at a distance while simultaneously regulating the urban environment, intersecting with the broader transformations of China's urban governance. These GIS developments have been largely government-centric rather than citizen-centric, yet they provide possibilities for new forms of spatial knowledge production for citizen participation in urban governance.     

The Permeable City: Toronto's Spatial Shift at the Turn of the Millennium

This article presents an analysis of the relationship between urban governance restructuring, and global, national, and local action through a case study of the Toronto city‐region. The Toronto city‐region recently underwent a massive reorganization of its governance structures, functions, and jurisdictional boundaries. This restructuring raises questions about why these changes occurred at this particular juncture in the region's history. Why did the city that had always been known in the academic and political discourse as the “city that works” stop “working”? What global and national forces might have accounted for such a radical restructuring? And what did local action contribute? These questions are explored in both historical and contemporary contexts by drawing on insights from regulation theory, urban regime theory, and an analysis of Canada's changing fiscal federalism. This approach informs the role that institutions — regardless of their origin or territorial scope — play in sustaining a local accumulation system, and how this “local” accumulation grounds a national regulatory mode and regime of accumulation. The approach also explores the relationship between regime and regulation theories in the context of policy formation and institution building. The study concludes that the current policy set is incapable of resolving the region's crisis tendencies. Notwithstanding external forces, the current policy set is not inevitable. Globalization does not predetermine all spatial‐economic outcomes.     

The Politics of Eminent Domain: From False Choices to Community Benefits

Large-scale urban redevelopment projects catalyze moments of peril and opportunity. In the wake of the United States Supreme Court's Kelo v. New London decision affirming economic development as a public use under the takings clause of the Constitution, these perils and opportunities have again become a site of major contestation. An unusual alliance of libertarian property-rights ideologues and civil-rights organizations has joined forces to challenge the use of eminent domain in urban economic development. In this article, I analyze the history of these alliances and their implicit reinforcement of deeply reactionary constructions of property. I conclude with an evaluation of two emergent models—community benefit agreements and community equity shares—that provide promising community tools for alternatives to homeowner rule and neoliberal urban renewal.